How Do YOU Define Yourself Lizzie Velasquez at TEDxAustinWomen
Summary
TLDRIn this inspiring speech, Lizzie Velasquez shares her journey with a rare syndrome that affects her weight and vision. Despite the challenges and bullying she faced, she emphasizes the importance of not letting external factors define who you are. With resilience and determination, Lizzie has pursued her goals as a motivational speaker, author, and college graduate, turning negativity into a ladder to success and proving that one's inner strength and accomplishments can truly define a person.
Takeaways
- 🌟 The speaker was born with a rare syndrome that affects weight gain, of which only two other people in the world are known to have.
- 🍔 Despite the syndrome, the speaker enjoys the benefits of being able to eat freely without gaining weight.
- 👓 The speaker is visually impaired, which has its advantages, such as being able to ignore rude people by standing on the right side.
- 💪 The speaker has a strong support system, particularly from her parents, who raised her to be resilient and not let her syndrome define her.
- 👶 The speaker faced bullying as a child due to her appearance, but her parents encouraged her to continue being herself.
- 🤔 The speaker prompts the audience to consider what defines them as individuals, emphasizing that external factors should not dictate self-worth.
- 😔 The speaker struggled with self-acceptance, feeling defined by her appearance and syndrome, and wishing to be 'normal'.
- 📚 The speaker found motivation in the negativity directed at her, using it to fuel her goals and ambitions.
- 🎓 The speaker has achieved her goals of becoming a motivational speaker, writing books, and graduating from college with a degree in Communication Studies.
- 🔥 The speaker encourages the audience to use negativity as a tool for self-improvement and to define themselves by their goals and accomplishments, not their challenges.
- 👐 The speaker concludes by reiterating the importance of self-definition and the power of resilience in the face of adversity.
Q & A
What is the rare syndrome that the speaker was born with?
-The speaker was born with a very rare syndrome that prevents her from gaining weight, of which only two other people in the world are known to have.
How has the speaker's syndrome affected her life physically?
-The syndrome has resulted in the speaker never weighing more than about 64 pounds throughout her life, despite being able to eat whatever she wants.
What benefits does the speaker find in her syndrome?
-The speaker finds benefits in not being able to gain weight, such as the freedom to eat without worrying about weight gain, and in being visually impaired, which allows her to ignore rude people by standing on her right side.
How did the speaker's parents react when they were told about her syndrome at birth?
-The speaker's parents chose to love and raise her to the best of their abilities, despite being warned that she might never be able to talk, walk, crawl, think, or do anything by herself.
What challenges did the speaker face growing up?
-The speaker faced challenges such as bullying and having to deal with people's reactions to her appearance due to her syndrome.
How did the speaker's parents advise her to handle the bullying she experienced?
-Her parents advised her to continue being herself, to hold her head up high, and to smile, assuring her that her syndrome would not define who she is.
What realization did the speaker come to regarding her own self-perception?
-The speaker realized that she should not let her outer appearance or her syndrome define her, but instead let her goals, success, and accomplishments be the defining factors of her life.
How did the speaker cope with negative online comments and bullying?
-The speaker decided to ignore the negativity and focus on her own goals and self-improvement, using the negativity as motivation to achieve more.
What are some of the speaker's accomplishments that she is proud of?
-The speaker is proud of becoming a motivational speaker, writing multiple books, graduating from college with a degree in Communication Studies, and having a minor in English.
What advice does the speaker give to the audience regarding self-definition?
-The speaker advises the audience to not let external factors define them, but to instead focus on their own goals and accomplishments, using any negativity as a stepping stone to success.
Outlines
🌟 Embracing a Rare Syndrome with Optimism
The speaker introduces herself with enthusiasm and discusses her unique condition—a rare syndrome that prevents her from gaining weight, shared by only two other known individuals. Despite the challenges, she highlights the benefits of her condition, such as the ability to eat freely without weight gain and the advantages of being small in certain social situations. She also humorously offers to be a 'poster child' for weight loss programs, demonstrating her resilience and positive attitude towards life's adversities.
🤷♀️ Overcoming Bullying and Defining Identity
This paragraph delves into the speaker's experiences with bullying due to her physical appearance and the syndrome she has. She recalls the initial shock of realizing she looked different from her peers and the emotional toll it took on her. However, with the support of her loving parents, she learned to embrace her uniqueness and not let her syndrome define her. The speaker encourages the audience to reflect on what truly defines them as individuals, emphasizing the importance of self-acceptance and overcoming external judgments.
🚀 Turning Negativity into Motivation for Success
In this paragraph, the speaker shares her journey of turning negative experiences, such as cyberbullying and derogatory comments, into a source of motivation. She decided not to let the opinions of others define her and instead focused on her goals, which included becoming a motivational speaker, writing books, and graduating from college. She successfully achieved these goals, using the negativity as fuel to propel herself forward and proving her resilience and determination to succeed despite the odds.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Syndrome
💡Visually Impaired
💡Bullying
💡Motivational Speaker
💡Resilience
💡Self-Acceptance
💡Goals
💡Negativity
💡Identity
💡Support System
💡Determination
Highlights
The speaker was born with an extremely rare syndrome affecting weight gain.
Despite the syndrome, the speaker can eat freely without gaining weight.
The speaker has never weighed more than 64 pounds in their life.
The speaker humorously recounts college life with a tub of Twinkies and chips.
There are benefits to being unable to gain weight and visually impaired.
The speaker uses their unique experiences to volunteer as a poster child for weight programs.
The speaker's parents were determined to raise her normally despite early medical predictions.
The speaker credits her parents for her strength and achievements.
The speaker faced bullying due to her appearance but learned to rise above it.
The speaker's parents taught her that her syndrome does not define her.
The speaker challenges the audience to consider what defines them as individuals.
The speaker once struggled with self-acceptance, wishing to be different.
The speaker found motivation in the negativity of others to improve herself.
The speaker's goals include becoming a motivational speaker, writing books, and graduating college.
The speaker has achieved her goals, including submitting a manuscript for her third book.
The speaker emphasizes the importance of not letting external opinions define one's self-worth.
The speaker encourages the audience to use negativity as a stepping stone to success.
The speaker concludes by reiterating the question of what defines the audience, leaving a lasting impact.
Transcripts
I'm really really really excited to be
here I kind of want to tell you a little
bit more of the I don't want to say
basics cuz we don't really know anything
about my syndrome I was born with this
very very rare syndrome that only two
other people in the world including
myself that we know of have basically
what the syndrome causes that I cannot
gain weight yes it does to help as good
as it is
I could eat absolutely whatever I want
whenever I want and I won't really gain
any weight I'm gonna be 25 in March and
I've never weighed over about 64 pounds
of my entire life
what this is in college I hit why did
hide it was I wrote it was there but it
was a giant tub of Twinkies doughnuts
chips skittles and my roommate would say
I could hear you at 12:30 reaching under
your bed to get food but I'm like you
know what it's alright I can do these
things because there are benefits to
this syndrome there are benefits to not
being able to gain weight there are
benefits to being visually impaired
there are benefits to being kind of
really small a lot of people think
Lizzie how the world are you saying
there's benefits when you can only see
out of one eye let me tell you what the
benefits are cuz they're great I wear
contacts contact half-up contacts
when I wear my reading glasses hat off
prescription if somebody is annoying me
being rude stand on my right side it's
like you're not even there I don't even
know you're standing there right now if
I sound like this I have no clue but
there's this whole size of the room also
being small I am very willing to
volunteer myself to go to Weight
Watchers go to some gym and say hi I'm
Lizzy I will be your poster child put my
face whatever you need and I'll say hi I
use this program look how well it worked
even though there are really amazing
things that have come from this syndrome
there are also things that have been
very very difficult as you can imagine
growing up I was raised 150 percent
normally when I was my parents first
child and when I was born the doctors
told my mom your daughter has no
amniotic fluid around her at all so when
I was born it was a miracle that I came
out screaming the doctors told my
parents we just want to warn you expect
your daughter to never be able to talk
walk crawl think or do anything by
herself now as first parents you could
first-time parents you could think that
my parents would say oh no why why why
are we getting our first child to have
all these unknown problems that's not
what they did
the first thing they told the doctor was
we want to see her and we are going to
take her home and love her and raise her
to the best of our abilities and that's
what they did
I credit pretty much everything that
I've done in my life - my parents my dad
is here with me today and my mom is at
home watching she's recovering from a
surgery and she has been the glue that's
held our family together and giving me
the strength to see that she's going
through so much but she has this
fighting spirit but she's instilled in
me that I have so proudly been able to
stand in front of people and say you
know what I've had a really difficult
life but that's okay that's okay
things have been scary things have been
tough one of the biggest things that I
had to deal with growing up was
something that I'm pretty sure every
single one of us in this room has dealt
with before can you guess what that is
start to the beat can you guys guess it
boys
holy
I know y'all are thinking I should have
come here with them I had to deal with
bullying a lot but as I said I was
raised very normally so when I started
kindergarten I had absolutely no idea
that I look different no clue I couldn't
see that I look different from other
kids I think of it kind of as a big slap
of reality for a five year olds because
I went into schools first day decked out
in Pocahontas gear I was ready I went in
with my backpack that looked like a
turtle shell because it was bigger than
me and I walked up to a little girl I
smiled at her she looked up at me like I
was a monster like I was the scariest
thing she'd ever seen in her life my
first reaction was she is really rude I
am a fun kid and she's the one missing
out so I'll just go over here and play
with blocks or boys I thought the day
was gonna get better and unfortunately
it didn't the day kind of got worse and
worse and a lot of people just wanted to
have absolutely nothing to do with me
and I couldn't understand why why what
did I do
I didn't do anything to them am i my guy
was still a really cool kid so I had to
go home and ask my parents what's wrong
with me what did I do
why don't they like me and they sat me
down and they said Lizzie the only thing
that's different about you is that
you're smaller than the other kids you
have this syndrome but it's not gonna
define who you are they said go to
school pick your head up smile continue
to be yourself and people will see that
you're just like them and so that's what
I did I want you to think and ask
yourself this in your head right now
what defines you who are you is it where
you come from
is it your background is it your friends
what is it what defines who you are as a
person it's taken me a very long time to
figure out what defines me
for so long I thought what define me was
my outer appearance I thought that my
little tiny legs
my little arms in my little face was
ugly I thought it was disgusting I hated
when I would wake up in the morning I
was going to middle school and looking
in the mirror getting ready in the king
can I just rub this syndrome off it
would make my life so much easier if I
could just scrub it off
I could look like the other kids I
wouldn't have to buy clothes that had
Dora the Explorer on it I wouldn't have
to buy stuff that was bedazzled when I
was trying to be like the cool kids I
would wish and pray and hope and do
whatever I could to pray that I would
wake up in the morning and I would be
different and I wouldn't have to deal
with these struggles it's what I wanted
every single day and every single day I
was disappointed I have an amazing
amazing support system around me who
never pity me who are there to pick me
up if I'm sad who are there to laugh
with me during the good times and they
taught me that even though even though I
have this syndrome even though things
are hard I can't let that define me my
life was put into my hands just like
your lives are put into yours you are
the person in the front seat of your car
you are the one who decides whether your
car goes down a bad path or a good path
you are the one that decides what
defines you let me tell you it could be
really easy to I mean really hard to
figure out what what defines you cuz
there are times where I would just get
still annoyed and frustrated I don't
care what defines me when I was in high
school I found the video unfortunately
that somebody posted of me labeling me
the world's ugliest woman there were 4
million views to this video 8 seconds
long
no sound thousands of comments people
saying Lizzy please please just do a
world a favor put a gun to your head and
kill yourself think think about that if
people did it people told you that
strangers told you this
I cried my eyes out of course and I was
ready to kind of fight back and
something kind of clicked in my head and
I thought I'm just gonna leave it alone
I kind of started realizing that my life
is in my hands
I could either choose to make this
really good or I can choose to make this
really bad I could either be grateful
and open my eyes and realize the things
that I do have and make those the things
that define me I can't see out of one
eye but I can see out of the other I
might get sick a lot but I really nice
hair Thanks
you guys are like the best little
section right here okay okay so I could
either choose to be happy or I could
choose to kind of be upset with what I
have and still kind of complain about it
but then I started realizing am I gonna
let the people who call me a monster
define me am I gonna let the people who
said kill it with fire define me no I'm
gonna let my goals and my success and my
accomplishments be the things that
define me not my outer appearance not
the fact that I'm visually impaired not
the fact that I had this syndrome that
nobody knows what it is so I told myself
I'm gonna work my butt off and do
whatever I could to make myself better
because in my mind the best way that I
could get back at all those people who
made fun of me who teased me who called
me ugly who called me a monster was to
make myself better and to show them you
know what tell me those negative things
I'm gonna turn them around and I'm gonna
use them as a ladder to climb up to my
goals that's what I did I told myself I
wanted to be a motivational speaker I
want to write a book graduate college
have my own fan
my own career eight years later I'm
sitting in front of you is still doing
motivational speaking first thing I
accomplished it I wanted to write a book
in a couple weeks I will be submitting
the manuscript for my third book I
wanted to graduate college and I just
finished I'm getting a degree I'm
getting a degree in Communication
Studies from Texas State University in
San Marcos and I have a minor in English
I really really tried to use real-life
experience while I was getting my degree
and my professors were not having it but
I wanted to have lastly my own family in
my own career and the family part is
kind of down the line in my career part
I feel like I'm really doing well with
it considering the fact that when I
decided I wanted to be a motivational
speaker I went home I sat in front of my
laptop went to Google type in how to be
a motivational speaker I'm not even
joking I worked my butt off I use the
people who are telling me that I
couldn't do this to motivate me I use
their negativity to light my fire to
keep going use that use that use that
negativity that you have in your life to
make yourself better because I guarantee
you guarantee you you will win now I
want to end with asking you again I want
you to leave here and ask yourself what
defines you but remember rape starts
here thank you
[Applause]
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